CCPR/C/119/D/2425/2014
Facts as presented by the author
2.1
On 4 January 2010, while in the twentieth week of her second pregnancy, the author
underwent an ultrasound scan at Wexford General Hospital in Ireland. The obstetrician
believed that the fetus was affected by holoprosencephaly, a congenital brain malformation
occurring in approximately 1 in 250 pregnancies. Only 3 per cent of holoprosencephalic
fetuses survive to delivery. The obstetrician informed the author and her husband that the
baby would likely die in utero, and that if it were carried to term, it would probably die
during labour or very soon after birth. Concerns were also raised about the formation of the
heart, kidneys and other fetal organs. The obstetrician mentioned that “in another
jurisdiction [they] would be offered a termination but obviously not in this country due to
Irish law”.1 The author was not given further information and was not referred to anyone to
discuss the diagnosis, the care she would be offered in Ireland or the possibility of
travelling abroad to terminate the pregnancy. Instead, the obstetrician stated that the author
“would continue with the pregnancy, attend ante-natal appointments ‘as normal’ and wait
for nature to take its course”.
2.2
On 7 January 2010, the author underwent an additional scan and an amniocentesis in
the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin. The diagnosis of fatal holoprosencephaly was
confirmed by the hospital’s doctors, who did not offer the author any information on
counselling services, options available to her, or the risk that the condition would recur in a
later pregnancy. The doctor gave her a report of the scan “in case [they] wanted to travel”.
When she asked where she could go if she wanted “to travel”, she was simply told that
there were good reports about Liverpool Women’s Hospital. The author did not discuss
with the doctor the possibility of terminating the pregnancy abroad, since the obstetrician in
Wexford had told her that the procedure was illegal in Ireland. She indicates that she “felt it
was illegal to even discuss this or ask too many questions for fear of having the door
slammed in our faces or of not receiving any help whatsoever”. On 12 January 2010, the
author received the results of the amniocentesis over the phone, and was told that the baby
also suffered from trisomy 13 (Patau’s syndrome), a chromosomal condition associated
with severe intellectual disability and physical abnormalities in many parts of the body. The
author was told that this condition was “incompatible with life”.
2.3
The author felt she could not continue with the pregnancy only to see her baby suffer
and die, and that the continuation of the pregnancy would bring her terrible mental
suffering. Thus, she and her husband decided to terminate the pregnancy. They contacted
several crisis pregnancy agencies, including Cura and Positive Options, to seek information
on traveling to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 2 However,
because most agencies were only able to assist women whose pregnancies were no further
along than 13 weeks, the author did not receive any information on traveling to the United
Kingdom, and “felt lost and totally on [her] own”. Through a friend, the author obtained
contact information for the Liverpool Women’s Hospital and fixed an appointment there.
The Hospital asked her to send relevant medical records by fax, and this was an additional
hurdle for the author to overcome, as she did not have a fax machine. When the author
returned to the hospital in Wexford in order to obtain the requested records, several staff
members were insensitive towards her, with no regard for the devastating news she had
received only a few days earlier. She finally managed to consult a locum doctor, who was
very understanding. The author had to share the medical records with an acquaintance, who
helped her to send them by fax. She feared the acquaintance would judge her for deciding
to terminate the pregnancy.
1
2
2
In an affidavit dated 4 March 2014, the author stated: “Upon hearing that we would be offered a
termination in another country we knew our baby’s problem was very severe. On reflection this was
probably the consultant’s way of informally telling us that we could travel to terminate the pregnancy
and that there was nothing they could do for us.”
In her affidavit, the author states that she “began to ring around to some ‘crisis’ pregnancy agencies,
including Cura and Positive Options …. None of them were able to help or provide the information
we needed as most can only help if your pregnancy is 13 weeks or less. We did get the name of a
private clinic in London whom we rang but it did not feel right to us to be going to one of these
clinics at such a late stage in pregnancy.”
GE.17-10463